Dominick's to offer a buyout
9,000 workers employed by grocery chain Dominick?s will today have the opportunity to vote on whether to strike Sunday or accept a contract offer that likely includes demands to replace permanent raises with one-time only lump-sum payments, and seniority buy-outs of employees who would likely be rehired at lower pay and benefit levels. According to officials of the United Food and Commercial Workers union representing the workers, the proposed contract is an attempt by grocery giant Safeway Inc., which took over Dominick?s in 1998, to cut labor costs after running the once profitable chain into the ground through poor management decisions. Safeway management has threatened to shut down the Dominick chain if workers do not agree to the buyouts and pay and benefit concessions resembling those it won in a bitter fight against Canadian Safeway employees earlier this year---threats that the union has answered by filing a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board.